Eastern League Final Report
Philadelphia, Pa. (Sports Network)

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats won the Eastern League Championship by following up a stellar regular season with a brilliant postseason performance

The Fisher Cats finished the season 84-57, won the Northern Division title and wasted little time in claiming the league title by sweeping the Altoona Curve in three games to win the title
New Hampshire won the first two games 5-4 and the series clincher 2-0

The Erie SeaWolves and Binghamton Mets also made the postseason tournament and were ousted in the first round

As for the rest of the league, or if you want more details, continue reading as the following is a team-by-team breakdown of the Eastern League season

The Portland Sea Dogs

Portland's 69-73 record was the second worst in the Northern Division as the Sea Dogs were 32-39 at home, 37-34 on the road and finished the season winning seven-of-10

Portland's staff had the highest ERA in the Eastern League at 4.77 and gave up the third most hits with 1,317

One highlight of the pitching staff was Abe Alvarez
In 26 starts, Alvarez went 10-9 with a 3.59 ERA
He struck out 109 and walked just 32

Offensively, Portland received solid seasons from:-
Jeff Bailey (.294 average, .522 slugging percentage, 23 doubles, 13 home runs, 58 RBI, 57 runs,)
Mike Lockwood (.280 average, 32 extra-base hits,)
Kenny Perez (.280 average, 31 doubles, 61 RBI, 12 stolen bases) and
Brett Roneberg (.278 average, .462 slugging percentage, 30 doubles, 17 home runs, 77 RBI, 59 walks, 67 runs)

Sunday 5th December 2004
Joe's SeaBlog
Thoughts on the Portland Sea Dogs (an unofficial/private report)

NOTE - click here for an explanation of the terms used in this report

Sea Dogs 2004 Batting Leaders

At long last, an update!
It's probably a moot point at this point, but here's a year-end review of the Sea Dogs statistical leaders for 2004
There will be an entry for the batters followed by one for the pitchers
For our purposes here, I have only looked at batters with a minimum of 100 plate appearances
Stats are from the Baseball America web site

Here are the leaders

Plate Appearances
Roneberg 542, O'Keefe 541, Perez 437, Fulse 412, Bailey 359
Despite a two week stint in Athens with the Australian Olympic team, Brett Roneberg led the team in plate appearances
In addition to being healthy, Roneberg was consistently productive, yet never in any real danger of a promotion
O'Keefe started off slowly with the bat, yet his versatility kept him in the lineup long enough to start hitting a little
Perez' season was halfway between Roneberg and O'Keefe's, while Fulse and Bailey were regulars who missed time with injuries and, in Jeff Bailey's case, a brief promotion to Pawtucket

Batting Average and Runs-Batted-In
We don't really talk about these two stats here, because there are much more meaningful stats to look at
But for the record, Hanley Ramirez (.310) and Stefan Bailey (.309), both of whom came to Portland after the All Star break, were the only Dogs to hit over .300
Roneberg led Portland with 77 RBI on the year

Runs and Stolen Bases
Two other stats that I don't think reveal a lot in analysis
Roneberg led the team with 67 runs, followed by Sheldon Fulse with 58
Fulse and Ramirez were probably the two best baserunners on the team
Fulse led the team with 29 steals in 40 attempts
Ramirez stole 12 in just 32 games, tying him for second with Perez and Medrano (who only appeared in 57 games himself)

Home Runs
O'Keefe 19, Roneberg 17, Bailey 13, Hattig 12, Lockwood & Fulse 9
Only a little more meaningful than RBI, but lots more fun to talk about
Most of these guys had never really shown any power before this year
John Hattig missed some time with injury, then was traded to the Blue Jays in the Terry Adams trade
Hattig had a couple more blasts in Hadlock when he returned with the NH Fischer Cats

On Base Percentage
Hattig .411, Bailey .404, Bailie .364, Roneberg, Lockwood & Ramirez .360
Hattig and Bailey were #3 and #4 on the team in total walks despite playing in only 75 and 91 games, respectively
Stefan Bailie and Hanley Ramirez, on the other hand, were a lot more about batting average
Hattig and Bailey, not surprisingly, were #1 and #2 in BB/PA, followed by Fulse, Campo and O'Keefe
The Sea Dogs overall were pretty disciplined at the plate this year

Slugging Average
Bailie .590, Bailey .522, Hattig .519, Ramirez .512, Roneberg .462
Stephan Bailie just missed making the top 5 in homers, hitting 8 in only 37 games
He really enjoyed that big wall in left field at Hadlock
Jeff Bailey had a great year with the bat
If he was at all proficient at catcher (his primary position this year), he'd be a pretty good prospect
Ramirez is a surprise here, as he didn't show any power at Sarasota, though the Sox have always expected his power to develop
And there's mister steady-not-spectacular, Brett Roneberg, in the #5 spot

On-base percentage plus Slugging percentage (OPS)
Bailie .954, Hattig .930, Bailey .926, Ramirez .872, Roneberg .822
If you read the previous two paragraphs, you probably don't need me to elaborate here

Gross Production Average (GPA)
Hattig .315, Bailey .312, Bailie .311, Ramirez .290, Roneberg .278
This metric, which was popularized by Aaron Gleeman (http://www.aarongleeman.com/) at The Hardball Times (http://www.hardballtimes.com/), combines the utility of the Runs Created metric, in that it values OBP over SLG, with a friendly, batting average-style presentation
This is just a reshuffling of the OPS list, with Hattig and Bailey's OBP moving them to the top of the list

Is everybody keeping their Bailieys' straight to this point?
Jeff Bailey, steady minor league veteran 1B/OF type pushed back into catching duties due to a lack of depth in the Red Sox system
Sephan Bailey, slugging 1B/DH type who regained prospect status this year after several injury-riddled seasons
Everybody got that?

Gross Production Average*Plate Appearances
Roneberg 150, O'Keefe 141, Bailey 112, Perez 109, Fulse 104
This is my own creation (I think), which basically measures which players made up the biggest percentage of the team's total offensive output for the season
It attempts to take into consideration both quality and quantity of play
It's no surprise that Roneberg tops this list, while O'Keefe's playing time moves him into second
Other than Roneberg, however, this list underscores the fact that Portland's best hitters weren't on the roster for most of the season

Runs Created
Roneberg 75, O'Keefe 69, Bailey 65, Hattig 56, Perez 53
A somewhat more comprehensive look at total offensive contribution, which more closely approximates the total runs that the team generated during the season
(Portland's 664 actual runs scored this year were 17 below the total generated by the "Runs Created" Formula. The GPA*PA totals are about double the runs created)
Here Hattig moves past Perez and Fulse, which basically shows that the RC formula acknowledges that there is some level of positive offensive production that does not result in runs scored - e.g. .200 OBP and .200 SLG aren't likely to result in a lot of runs, whereas the GPA computation starts the positive contribution at anything above .000
It should be noted that this is a reflection of my own shortcomings as a statistician rather than an indictment of the GPA stat in its own right.
Anywho, this list again gives Roneberg and (especially) O'Keefe a lot of credit for playing time

Runs Created/27 Outs
Bailie 8.3, Bailey 8.0, Hattig 7.6, Ramirez 7.4, Lockwood 5.8
Ho-hum - the same guys as the OPS and GP - hey, wait a minute!
Wha's Mike Lockwood doing in there?
He edged Roneberg, who came in at 5.5
In this case Roneberg gets knocked back because he hit into a lot of DP's this year - their rate stats were otherwise remarkably similar
Because Roneberg hit toward the top of the order, he likely had a higher percentage of chances with runners on than Lockwood did
Nobody said that all stats are fair
Oh, what this means is that a lineup with, say, nine John Hattigs would score an average of 7.6 runs per game
That's pretty good

Offensive Most Valuable Player
Well, if you look at the counting stats, you'd have to say that Brett Roneberg was the Sea Dogs' offensive MVP this year
If you look at the rate stats, Bailie and Hattig are contenders, but neither has the playing time to justify their selection

I'm going to split the difference and say that my vote for Portland's offensive MVP this year is Jeff Bailey, who's 294/404/522-13-58 line put him second on the team in both OBP and SLG and reflected enough playing time to warrant serious consideration